July 2006

What a challenge this simple fair isle hat design for the book has been! 3 hours into my original design and I had to frog it.

In my search for personal fulfillment, I kept walking away from the "Beginner vision" of the book. So what started as an allover Argyle design, got shrunk to a band of fair isle (and a few more hours of designing went into the pot again). Next time--make me a huge sign that says: KISS. The Argyle design had to be put away--at least for the moment....sad, sad.

But all my hours of playing/designing have actually been made a lot easier and enjoyable since I got the designing software by KnitFoundry--talk about an easy way to create charts. If you haven't tried it, go to their site and download the free demo. The software rocks! I am now making charts for everything and anything! Gosh, I love my job!!! And if you buy it and are forgetful like I am--contact Nancy and she'll give you a special deal for both the instant download and the CD! Now, if I could just find a CD with nice body forms for me to draw my ideas on--then I would be completely set!

A peek into another book project: From vision to actual life:

Challenge 1: writing the instructions easy enough for someone new to loom knitting.

Challenge 2: Writing the pattern for bigger sizes than mine

Off to loom knit a few more things....chugging along...almost done...I can see the light!

On another topic--I am trying to clean out my craft room and I have put a bunch of stuff for sale over at my Destashing site--yarn, looms, and needles will be posted there soon.

Sky at 8pm, on our last Saturday in July. By far, it is one of my favorite Saturday Sky pictures that I have taken--for some reason, it gives me a sense of hope.

I have spent the best part of the day designing a fair isle stitch pattern for a hat--every time I thought I had something, I faced a wall--a set amount of pegs that I needed to meet. After several hours, I came up with the exact stitch count that would work with the knitting loom in mind....what do you think?

You see that pink something--it is a little sneak peek into a huge project that my friend Dlandra helped me knit. She did such a wonderful job! Thanks for having my back! Love ya Sista!!

And lastly, I wanted to share a picture from my other little one--he fell asleep thinking--I have named the picture--the Thinker, hehehehe...original :). The little stuff dragon is his favorite--his name is Scorchy and I brought him with me when I moved from NY--it has been B's nite, nite "protector" since he was about 1 year old.

A look into my poor parenting skills-- Look, no one to cuddle her but the lowly step! Poor little munchkin.

One moment, she was playing around, the next she sat down next to her dad (the feet in the picture), and next we knew,she was out (it was like 1am!). I had to grab the camera and snap a picture of my little Sleeping Beauty.

I am dying. My hand hurts from all the loom knitting I have been doing. You have heard the saying, an apple a day keeps the doctor away--well, the same principle does not apply to a Loom Knitted Project a Day.

So if you see me a bit quiet for the next few days--I have not died (at least I hope not). I am just innundated with yarn and looms.

Send energy and good karma my way. Oh, and sleep for me just a wee bit!

Oh, check my new shoes....me loves them. They are PINK! I wanted them in blue but they were all gone :(.

The looms stayed home (ok, not really, I had my knitting bag with me) on Saturday and we headed out across the mountain to Tremonton to the fairgrounds. Life has been a bit busy lately and I have been innundated with yarn and knitting looms--my children know that the moment I wake up I am either at the computer typing away, or loom knitting, or reading a book "doing heseach". This weekend though, I wanted to give them something back and guess what--I had fun--I enjoyed myself as much as they did! The heat did not hinder us one bit on our day of adventures. Overall--it was a great fun date, I felt rejuvenated--especially after my nap!

Tomorrow is a Utah holiday and we have big plans--weeding the yard, BBQ, and then fireworks over at the park--but most importantly--a funnel cake, a churro, and maybe a yummy gyro for me! It is all about the food, lol!

Children can be so adorable. I just had to share this wonderful little bit of today with you. I was folding clothes when the following was happening:

It all started when Nyah found one of her babies in the toy room. She brought it upstairs and both her and Bryant started playing together.

B: This baby needs a diaper change

N: (runs to get a diaper-gives it to Bryant) Bryant takes off the diaper the baby is wearing and gives it to Nyah. Nyah runs away saying "garbage, garbage--pewweee"

B: Mom, baby needs her clothes changed.

(I give them a little outfit)

Bryant proceeds to take off the clothes on the baby and Nyah helps by pulling on the little arms. After fumbling with the outfit, they finally get the baby dressed.

Bryant wraps it in a blankie and sings

"Rock a baby and good night is time to go to sleep--mommy is knitting so you sleep...."

They both lay down on the couch and Bryant realizes that the baby doesn't have a bed and he says

B: You little stinker, you can't sleep with us, you kick too much.

Bryant gets down from the couch and goes up to find a box for the baby. Nyah grabs the baby and starts singing Twinkle Twinkle.

Bryant finds a box and puts the baby in the box-now a baby crib. And he tiredly says--

B: Oh this baby kept me awake all night long, now I have to go make looms. Nyah you stay home and feed the baby bottle and knit.

He goes to the other room then comes back saying

B: Oh, I am tired! Making looms is hard work. I waxed all day....(exhales a huge Sighhhh)

He grabs the baby and sits with it and starts playing with it.

(I go upstairs to put the clothes away)

A couple of minutes pass:

B: Mom, we are going to buy the baby diapers, you watch the baby. Take good care of her. She needs a bottle and don't give her candy! (We have been trying to get Nyah to stop eating candy--Bryant has caught on to the general idea!)

N: Bye baby, wooove you. (She gently picks up the baby and gives her a kissy).

The afternoon was one of the most pleasant and revealing of my life. I keep thinking that my kids never listen to me--despite my screaming, but today, I realized that they may ignore my voice, but their little eyes watch my every move!

In the loom knitting front--I was able to finally finish the shrug. There was some frogging and some headbanging as the original pattern I had in mind didn't exactly work with the yarn, but at the end, I found the perfect beginner stitch pattern.

In Mommy duties--we are just tickled pink--Nyah can count to 10 in both Spanish and English! And...wait, that's not all, she is completely off the bottle--it took us long enough (she is 19mos), she was very much attached to it. She looks for food when she needs comfort (I think she got that from me, poor muffin). Bryant--well, he is my little helper. He has learned to fold all of his clothes! It is such a time saver! He folds his little clothes and Nyah's! Yay!!

During the past week, I have been converting some needle knit dishcloth patterns onto chart form. The charts have been a great hit and a few friends have been asking me about the knitting font I use...but I won't tell...it is my secret, my secret. HAHAHAHA! Ok, it is not a secret, it is actually a well known website through out the blog-sphere.

A few months ago after searching low and high for a way to create nice looking charts for some of my loom knitted patterns, I came across a terrific website, Aire River Design, they provide a free knitting font for personal use and for self-publishers. It is very simple to use. Just download the font onto your pc, install it and you are set. You can use the font on any of your computer programs and create professional looking charts.

I use mine in Word. I simply insert a table with the number of columns (for stitches) and with the number of rows necessary. Then I just insert the symbol needed into each cell. That's it! Really neat and easy!

There now, you know my secret to my pretty charts. There are other free knitting fonts out there, but I have not had the chance to try them.

I am so official now...see my new banner and cute little button! I am officially the Purling Sprite in the blog-sphere! Cynthia hooked me up with a mystifying-sizzling web banner. For lack of better words---it totally rocks! Look closely--I am knitting socks (my favorite item to knit), it is purple--lots of shades of purple, and she even added a couple of knitting looms! I just feel so glamorous--a glamorous Purling Sprite ;).

To celebrate my new banner, I had to start a pair of socks--in purple of course. The stripey goodness is the self-striping yarn I got from Scout..I love the swirling stripes of black and purple. The design--my own crazy thing, I'll post the pattern when I finish the first sock, it is not difficult at all. I am using size 1 Crystal Palace dpns and a rib of k6, p2.

In other projects, I am chugging along with the loom knitting projects...slowly but surely. I can see the end near....yay!

I have decided that every day, I am going to set an hour aside to knit on needles...an hour a day may not seem like much, but I can get a few rounds on a sock done, or even a small project done--time to take out the One Skein book out!

Reporting on the weird plant: It has some type of weird-looking-flowers now. My neighbor next door (whom cornered me after coming back from Knitter's Nite) inform me that it is a thistle and I should take it out. So--the weird plant is not from out-of-space like some of you suggested, so no big money is to be made...sad news, I know, hahahaha. Come this fall, I am afraid a lot of the plants in the yard are going to be taken a one way trip to plant-heaven.

Checking out for now from the bunnies in Utah....the glamorous, purple, Purling Sprite :). Thanks Cynthia for the great banner!

Lookie what I spied outside...a little dragonfly flying around. It was a little hard getting a picture of a flying little bug, but the chase was fun. It kept flying high and hiding behind the leaves but I succeeded in taking a few blurry pics of the flying purple/blueish beauty.

Another purple beauty to share...a new sock yarn for my collection, a ScoutJ handpainted original. I can hardly wait to try it out--I am thinking a simple sock to allow the beauty of the yarn to shine! Scout has terrific service! She even sent a wonderfully scented incense stick--which is now housed inside the little footstool with all my current projects.

Purple projects all around--a little fishy to help in practicing increasing/decreasing on knitting looms. The loom holds the purple blob--a never ending project that after many days of procrastination has finally been bound off and it is currently drying...something good about this heat wave, anything felted dries up in one day flat!

Some of you asked me about the socks on yesterday's post--the picture is just a little peek to one of the projects I have been working for the "big project"....shhhh, it's a secret, don't tell anyone you saw the picture.

Speaking of yesterday's pictures, do you remember the "interesting- looking-speciment"...well, my darlin' hubby informed me today (after hearing me nag about the "ugly" plant with the huge buds that don't flower) that the interesting-specimen actually doesn't give flowers. The buds are not buds for flowers, they are the flowers...hmmm. Apparently, the specimen is called a "CatTail." I don't know where it got its name as it doesn't look like any cattail I have ever seen...I don't know. I don't think it is a cattail...at least it doesn't look like the cattails pictured all over google. Whatever it is, I will keep an eye on it...cattail, dogtail, fishtail, whatever it is, we will wait and see...patiently....sighh.

Over the weekend, I acquired a super cool set of couches for an unbelievable price. My neighbor next door is moving to California and they had a garage sale on Saturday. Although I love garage sales, I tend to avoid them as I usually come back home with unnessary items, but this time, I scored big!

My living room upstairs has been void of furniture since we moved into the house (with the exception of my wheel that has been there since the first day we moved), it wasn't really a big deal, the kids enjoyed playing in the big empty space and we never get any visitors so having furniture there wasn't really a major thing. But, having it empty felt that we weren't really "living" here, it seemed that we were in the brink of either moving in or out. But not anymore--look, 2 couches upstairs and my gorgeous new throne (hubby says so, lol).

On Friday (before scoring the couches) I stopped at Wal- mart and I found the cute footstool on the picture above, it is some suede imitation, nothing fancy, but oh so functional. The footstool doubles as a storage area. Take the top off and you have an area of about 28" L x 12" W x 8" D, enough space to store at least 2 projects (that be it needle knitted or loom knitted) and all types of notions needed for a project. I am a slob--and I tend to keep at least 3 different projects right next to me on the couch at all times, so naturally, they tend to occupy at least half of the couch, but not anymore, I have them now all neatly inside that little footstool. On top of the footstool, I have my trusty research knitting books.

Outside in the yard: we have been growing flowers like crazy. The strawberries are ripening despite the heat wave and the ants are still roaming around scaring Nyah.

But, look at this interesting specimen on the picture on the left. It started like any other weed, short, nasty looking, (it is still nasty looking) but it is no longer short, it stands about 5 feet tall and it keeps growing. It has buds, they have been there for about 2 weeks, I have been waiting patiently to see what type of flower it has--I mean for all I know it could be a carnivorous plant (yeah, that is how little I know about plants) . It is an interesting looking plant (weed?)...do any of you know what it could be....the suspence is killing me.

I have been having the urge to learn how to knit socks toe up, but my mind keeps telling me that I can't do it....why would I bother with the method, the top-down method has been serving me very well. Not to mention, I am not very fond of short row heels--I really like my flap heels....BUT...I shall have a change of heart...why? The new knitty has the most gorgeous pair of socks I have ever seen--it has cables, it has lace...it is red!!! Hotty, Hotty, Hotty!

Meet my ultimate sock love--the Baudelaire sock designed by Cookie. The name stroke a chord right away--it reminded me of the Baudelaire children from A Series of Unfortunate Events and of one of the most influential poets of the 19th Century, Charles Baudelaire--yeah, I remember reading him back in college--no, not for a class but for personal enjoyment. I was crazy like that....was trying to get some culture....didn't work, tee, hee hee.

Be still my heart, I shall teach these hands to knit socks toe-up so I can dress my little tootsies with a pair of Baudelaire Socks.

Another must knit from this issue of Knitty, the Perdita bracelets, desiged by Elizabeth. It gives the children friendship bracelets a new twist. I can see me knitting a few for upcoming gifties. They are knitted with DMC thread. Quick and beautiful project.

Last night, there was a little black speck on my monitor, I tried cleaning it but to no avail. The dot was not on the outside, it was inside! Then fast-foward 6 hours, woke up this morning and little dot had grown at least 400%! What the heck is it? Is my monitor going patas parriba? What's going on....look at it, it looks like I smashed a bug on it and now it doesn't want to come off....seriously not cool dude!

If things progress at the rate they have been progressing, my monitor will be one big black bug in two weeks time!

Any ideas out there? Is it really going out on me? Big time Bummer! Advice...should I be getting another one? Can it be repaired? Man! This shucks!

****UPDATE****

I got in touch with Dell and after trying a few diffrent things, they have decided to send me a brand spanking new, free of charge, Monitor! Yippeee!!! Gotta luv a Dell!

It is all foggy, as if it was all a dream, but I know for a surety that it was real, that it did happen. All I can remember is getting into the bus. I was sitting next to one of my sisters, we were coming back from school. I must have been around 6 years old. I remember laughing and being so happy. I recall my Mom sitting with us. The bus was crowded, but the three of us were sitting together in a 2 passenger seat. I remember that I was wearing a green plaid uniform with a pristine white shirt. The skirt had pleats that if I twirled around, my skirt would go flying up and my long skinny legs will show. The fluffy white shirt had little buttons that resembled pearls...I remember playing with them all the time, and I also remember my Mom telling me to stop "fussing" over them or they will fall off and then I will have to wear the regular buttons because there was no way she could afford getting another set of buttons like those. I had long skinny arms with white little spotches everywhere....my father's mom used to say that I got the spots because my Mom didn't feed us properly...my Mom believed her (now, I know that I am a bit allergic to the sun and if I spend too many hours outside without any sunblock, my skin blisters and if I scratch the blisters, white little spots emerge as scar-reminders-of-the-blisters. )

That afternoon, we were coming back from school, my Mom had picked up me up as always and taken us to some store (long forgotten). When I got on the bus, I was wearing my precious red backpack. I recall sitting in the little corner so that my Mom and sister would fit in the same seat. After the laughter and talking everything else is a haze as if it wasn't really me who was there. Mom shook me awake, I groggily got off the bus (with my Mom tugging at my hand) and onto the hot, humid streets of Lazaro Cardenas. After rubbing the sleep off my eyes, my thoughts turned to my backpack. I touched my back--no backpack. I asked my sister so Mom wouldn't hear, and no backpack. Anguish and disappointment washed over me like the waves crashing against the sandy shore. Tears started stinging my eyes and I knew that I had to ask, I just had to ask her to make sure...but the fear was overwhelming. I couldn't. I just couldn't tell her that I had lost it...my only responsibility in life and I had misplaced it! With tears streaming down my cheeks, I tugged on my Mom's hand and looking up at her dark brown eyes, I asked "Mom...do you have my backpack?". . I was disraught...my backpack, my sole possesion and responsibilty at that age and I had lost it. I don't remember much...but I remember my Mom bending down and saying, "Negrita, it will be alright, you can still go to school, I have an extra notebook for you." She wiped my tears with her blouse and my little sister and her embraced me.

My memories of my childhood are few, those spent with my Mom are even less. There are days that if I concentrate or I just sit and knit on my own, flashes of my past come to me as if I were in a dream. I search for these moments of solitude to view into my past and learn more about who I am, or why I am the way I have become.

My knitting hours have been plenty lately and the synapses have sparked more cherished memories, it may be because of the connection of my knitting to my Grandma, or it may be the rhytmic movements of my knitting, whatever the reason, it is nice to see into the past.

Pictures above:

The knitted sample was loom knitted--lots of yarn overs. On my trip back from Idaho, idle hands met yarn and loom. A few tries later, I had a beautiful drop stitch lace (?) that would look beautiful on a scarf or a shrug.

[flowers outside my house]

The books were my spoils from the trip.While I didn't make it to the yarn shop in Idaho Falls...Borders was open and I picked up The Knitter's Companion and The Knitting Answer Book--while the content of the 2nd book is priceless, I have to admit that the main reason I got it was it's size--I am a sucker for little books....have you seen it? It is tiny and I can see me carrying it in my knitting bag...usually, my No. 1 reference book is Vogue Knitting...but that is one huge honking book and there is no way I can haul that around, but this treasure at 4.5"x6" can fit almost anywhere. Opening the book yields a ton of answers to many of my knitting questions (remember, I only have about a year of experience knitting with needles).

My garden is still in full bloom. I now have orange Lilies as well as deep red ones (I have assumed that they look like lilies). I also have a lot of weeds...yucky! I guess it comes with the territory. I also seem to have a colony of little ants as the other day Little Nyah came inside the house screaming "buggy, buggy" and she was covered from head to toe with little black ants...agh. The garden is a new territory to me and I have no idea what to do.

I am off today to Idaho for a family thing...I have the name of a yarn shop up there, crossing fingers that I get there before it closes.